A Dragon's Burning Flame And A Guardian's Wing
by Hawkflight7
Summary: The dragon burns like a bright flame, fossilized in time. A single guardian always by his side.


**A Dragon's Burning Flame And A Guardian's Wing**

**Summary: The dragon burns like a bright flame, fossilized in time. A single guardian always by his side.**

**I'm feeling the need to mess around with fandoms currently, which is were this pairing came from. That and I was recently playing 13-2 and Lightning Returns and my mind just went, 'I have an absolutely crazy idea! Indulge me damn it!' So if you were looking for an explanation, that's it.**

**If you happen to like my weird detour please review :)**

Unbelievable.

That's what this year felt like so far. One impossibility right after the other.

She wasn't entirely sure which one of them was worse though. The image of Ron snogging Lavender Brown or... actually she didn't even understand how that first one had happened. What did he see in her for instance? He didn't even know her for all the years she had known him and already they were kissing in front of their whole House! Honestly, Lavender just threw herself at him after that Quidditch match like some... some... common whore.

Yes, that was the best word to describe that woman. Just going in as she had done, having the gall to be so public about it.

The cheering though... that had to be the worse part. Sure, everyone was excited after winning the match, but it was as if they were cheering Ron and Lavender on. As if they were encouraging the lip lock to continue. Bloody hell, there had actually been whistles when that woman dragged him down from on top of the table and into her arms. It wasn't a question of if they had spurred them on or not. They had.

And she still couldn't believe that.

Hermione stumbled on a root, putting a hand out to catch herself against a tree. Perhaps she shouldn't be walking right now with her mind where it was, but she couldn't stand it in the common room. Even then it hadn't been enough. She had just wanted - no, _needed_ \- to get away. From them, from all of it.

She let out a sigh as she leaned back against the tree, staring up past the branches to the night sky above. Perhaps she should have let Cormac take the position of Keeper. If she hadn't interfered he would have blocked that last one. Then the trial would continue until one of them missed. Maybe Lavender wouldn't be so interested in Ron if he hadn't made the team. Maybe she would be interested in Cormac instead and they would be the two snogging now in the castle beyond her. That alternative would be preferable, killing two birds with one stone as it were. Though really, she just wished she wasn't feeling this loss, this guilt. Because maybe then she wouldn't be out here now in the darkness below the trees, feeling tears running down her cheeks at the fact that she had waited too long.

That maybe her and Ron just hadn't been meant to be.

It happened, didn't it? You looked at someone and thought, that's who i'm going to be with for the rest of my life, and then you saw them with someone else and it shattered the illusion. Because before you knew it they were getting married, having children, growing old together in some quaint house with a small white picket fence surrounding the yard that was bursting with flowers.

It happened.

That's what she kept repeating to herself as she wrapped her arms around her body to try and contains the sobs, to stop herself from shaking so hard as the sounds escaped her. "You idiot," she muttered, not sure if she was cursing Ron or herself. The words just seemed to break the last dam behind her eyes and the tears flowed quickly over her skin, stinging her cheeks before dropping from her chin to hit the forest floor below.

There was a flash of red at the corner of her vision and she raised an arm to wipe the tears away even as she continued to sniff rather loudly. "Go away," Hermione snapped at whoever it was. The color made her think of Ron and she turned quickly, ready to shout at him if he really had managed to follow her all the way out here. If it was possible for him to disentangle himself from Lavender for even a bloody _second_.

Her eyes widened though when she saw the back of the creature's head, a hand flying to cover her mouth. The feathers swayed softly in the breeze, the red from on top turning yellow as it traveled down the cockatrice's long neck, becoming orange and stopping abruptly just a third way down. The feathers became the color of snow then, glowing from the moonlight that filtered through the leaves above. It's head was cocked to the side and she could hear it clicking it's beak as it turned slowly. In a moment it would spot her against the tree, it would-

A blur entered her vision and between the speed of the object and her own tears distorting her vision it took her a moment to work out what she had just seen.

There had been a flash of light, a form coming out of it - she wanted to say human, she hoped it was human - followed by a flash of metal and a loud crow from the cockatrice as it whirled around to follow after the twirling blades that had left tears in the dragon-like leather of it's wings.

The creature was flapping them madly, crowing in obvious pain as it's head turned from side-to-side trying to keep track of it's assailant. Something she was also struggling to do.

She had caught glimpses of sun-tanned skin and was sure now that it was a human. The metal looked like flames when it moved fast through the air, a bright glowing red in the dark before it bounced off the scaled tail. It was then that she could see him clearly, when he was no longer in a constant flow of movement in that single moment.

He looked surprised that the blade hadn't cut through, annoyed at the fact, and yet fascinated as well. His gaze moved up from the scales then, catching her eyes with the bright blue of his own.

A crow to her left made her head turn. A shout split through the air, "Don't look into it's eyes!"

Before she could there was a dark cloud running across the scene and the cockatrice let out another crow as the darkness broke like glass around it's head, it's eyes soon covered by black smoke. It was blinding the creature. _He_ had blinded it with some magic she couldn't identify.

She was staring at the creature that otherwise would have killed her with one look, she knew that, but she couldn't tear her gaze away. It couldn't see her, so it's power wasn't taking effect. She didn't remember a spell that did that and she wanted to ask the man how he had done that, but then there were fingers wrapped around her forearm, pulling her away from the creature as he shouted, "Run!"

Hermione was quick to follow the advice, running with him even as she heard the cockatrice's talons digging into the dirt behind them. She glanced down as she ran, eyes falling on black cord that was wound up his right arm, the weapon that had been there before was sheathed now. There was just a single question itching in the back of her throat as she gasped for air beside him. "Who are you?"

His head turned quickly, brown hair dark under the shadows of the trees. "Noel." How he managed to smile at a time like this was beyond her. The cockatrice was still following after them and he was actually laughing as she stared at him, struggling to keep up with his quick pace and trying to figure out just what was so funny about the current situation. "Noel Kreiss. And you are?"

"Hermione Granger," she managed to get out in-between her breaths of air.

He threw another smile at her. "You have an interesting idea of how to welcome people to this era, Hermione." Era?

She was about to ask what he meant when something slammed into her back, knocking her forward to the ground below. Hermione coughed to get the dirt out of her mouth as she heard talons sink into the earth, a crow filling the air soon after. She tore at the leaves around her face quickly, turning on her side so she could see the cockatrice running toward the other form on the ground.

Her hand was shaking but she managed to get her wand out, shouting as she pointed it at the creature, "Petrificus Totalus!"

The cockatrice froze; wings still extended at it's sides, head pointed down with it's beak closed, the black fog still suspended over it's eyes. It was impossible to tell if they were open or not, but with the other spell still intact and not knowing how long it would last she hurried over.

"Noel?" Hermione bent down next to him, trying not to think about the beak suspended just inches above his back. She reached forward to shake him gently by the shoulders. "Noel?" she pressed, voice raising slightly as she shook at his shoulders again, this time harder.

"I told you I heard something in the forest-"

"Miss Granger?"

She spun around to see Professor McGonagall at the edge of the clearing with Rubeus Hagrid just a step behind her. "Professor, please, you've go to help. He's not getting up. I-" she almost choked on the hiccup-sob that got caught in her throat.

"Calm down." McGonagall said as she stepped forward, eyes on the greyed creature behind her. "Hagrid, could you?"

"Of course," he answered before the Professor even finished the question. Hagrid was next to her in a few seconds as McGonagall continued to look at the petrified cockatrice.

She helped Hagrid move Noel away from the curved beak, only standing when the half-giant picked the boy up from the ground and she was quick to follow him from the forest. Her gaze stayed on Noel as they walked up the path to Hogwarts.

"Miss Granger?" She reluctantly turned her gaze to her Head of House, though she kept glancing back to the man that had appeared so suddenly in the woods. "Could you tell me what happened? Starting with why you were in the Forbidden Forest at this hour?"

Her mind immediately went to the common room and she felt an instant sting in her eyes. She blinked quickly to hold back the tears that had not escaped in the first flood. "I came out to get some air, Professor." A sniff escaped her and she fought to keep her voice under control. "I just wanted to get away for a bit, but then the cockatrice found me in the woods and Noel appeared."

"Noel?" The Professor glanced to him being carried across the courtyard. "Oh, the boy." McGonagall turned back to Hermione. "I must ask you. Is this Noel a muggle? If so he'll need to go to a proper hospital-"

"No!" She failed to notice the shocked look on McGonagall's face and how she abruptly stopped in the door way of the clock tower. "You can't. He's not a muggle anyway. I saw him perform magic in the forest, he blinded the creature so it couldn't petrify me. You can't send him away, not even to Saint Mungos. He-" She let out a gasp when the first tear hit her cheek. Hermione tried to stop the rest from falling by squeezing her eyes shut, but it didn't help matters and she was soon sobbing again.

He had helped her! Made the cockatrice unable to do it's usual method of killing. Something she should have done if she hadn't frozen up at the time. She should have been able to take care of it herself, but he had been there and done what he could before they had taken off running... Running through the forest with that creature hurdling after them, slowed by it's lack of flight, and then, there had been the laughing. Completely ridiculous given the situation, but it would be her fault if he didn't do it again.

What if-

"Noel," she whimpered. Hermione turned from the Professor quickly, running up the stairs in a flat out sprint to the infirmary above.

She ran straight past Hagrid on his way out, slipping in between the doors before they could close, only slowing when she saw him on one of the beds with Pomfrey already hovering over him. "Madam Pomfrey!" The woman's head practically snapped up from the boy at her yell. "He's not a muggle. Please, don't send him away."

"I wouldn't have even if he was, Miss Granger."

Relief swept through her as she stopped at the bed side, looking down at him. But then the words echoed in her head and she looked up quickly. "What do you mean?"

The way Madam Pomfrey frowned as she looked down at Noel did nothing to comfort her, and the healer's next words stabbed her deep in the gut, "He's not responding to any of my initial treatments right now. There are still more I can try but they will take time. He took a hit to the head and it's done some internal damage. I'm not sure if he will get up, but he's breathing and everything appears to be functioning just fine-Miss Granger?"

She didn't respond. She didn't think she could. Hermione sat slowly into the chair next to the bed, fingers moving forward to wrap around his right wrist, brushing over the black cord that was curled around the skin.

"I'll get started on the poultices, but I can't make any promises." Madam Pomfrey's footsteps faded into the background as she listened to the sound of Noel's breathing, as she felt his pulse along his wrist beating in a steady rhythm.


End file.
